POSTCARD FROM VIENNA

February 11, 2005

Things are a little hectic in Vienna, at least in my world, so I will be brief in my Friday update….maybe the two day break got me out of practice. It was nice having the short respite in an otherwise-intense pace; people either spent the days off in Paris or Vienna, two pretty amazing cities. Hard to believe 2 weeks from tonight we will be in Belfast at the end of this leg of the tour and our first time in Northern Ireland. Then Dublin, South Africa and beyond; I guess in our world only another couple of weeks of winter this year….which is a nice thought.

Antwerp and Paris were both excellent shows: fun hearing Undertow back in the set–lots of Monster/Green presence in the set of late, which is fun for a lot of us remembering that era fondly, and Antwerp included a night off so people got to explore that fascinating and exotic port city with its arts and culture. We visited the Anton Corbijn exhibit at the Fotomuseum : it was a real comprehensive retrospective of his work, including shots of just about everybody he has ever photographed. A staggering career, and this month he celebrates the release of his new book on his work with U2 spanning more than 20 years: U2 and I. We are lucky to count Anton as a friend, and he is as talented as anyone with a lens.

Paris meant a bunch of friends and family around, as that city always attracts plenty of those (think weâll come to…Paris!), then the short break and now Vienna, city of music and for us city of promo/TV appearances. Great to be here playing a real live rock show and great that we will be back in Austria in the summer for the show in Graz where we have never played.

The next few days brings us to Stuttgart, then Leipzig in the former east and finally, Berlin during the Film Festival…that should be fun.